[T3] Car Painting Costs

[Steven Howell <showell@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us>]

I quit painting cars for others many years back.  My latest example can be
seen at
yourvw.com/steve/
The reason I quit??
Too many (the majority) folks with an Earl Scheib or MAACO mentality.
Harley Davidson has by far the finest paint jobs/techniques in the
industry....$2 to $3K for 2 fenders amd the tanks...expensive?  You bet.
Worth it?  Hell yes.
$1500 for paint?  Cheap.  Only if it's done RIGHT!  Otherwise, purely
cheap.
I spend $600 to $900 on materials alone to paint a two tone Bug.  That's
front rear hoods, interior parts, jambs etc.
I spend anywhere from a minimum of 80 to 150 hours of labor on your basic
good condition 35 year old car.  
A quality painter will strip completely old paint to expose underlying
problem areas and fix them right.
If you want paint for a quick sell...MAACO is the way to go.  They cut
corners where you wouldn't believe.  They hire slave labor and get what
they pay for.
The last time I bid on a paint job and got the remark from the owner of
how they could get it done for under $200....was the last time I bid on
outside work.  No more.
When it comes to paint....you get what you pay for and then some.
later

 On Tue, 15 Aug 2000 DGaries808@aol.com wrote:
> I inquired about painting a car, and I should have got a message when the 
> owner told about paying $5,000 for a paint job on a 1951 Mercury. He sent me 
> down the street to a shop that did painting. When I got there, the owner of 
> that shop told me that their
> paint jobs started at $4,000 to $5,000 and went up from there. That turned me 
> off, because I was expecting a lower price around $1,500 to paint my Type 3 
> pickup. This 
> guy was telling me that his paint jobs ran around $7,500 if I was lucky. I 
> noted a buncha Ferraris and Porches outside his shop. But I felt that he was 
> out of line high even for a Ferrari or Porsche.
> What should I pay to paint the Type 3 pickup? It's basically a Squareback.

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